From of the Fields of Freedom Valley Farm 7.26.17

Posted 7/26/2017 7:51pm by Jan Schofield.

Hi Folks,It seems to be that time of year where we are just going through the motions at the farm. Although we are starting to think about some fall and winter crops (carrots) and where to plant them that activity is still a few weeks off. We have fallen into maintain and harvest mode. Our potato and squash crops are looking good and are requiring very little attention right now. We will start harvesting some of the more gourmet type potatoes next week. This year we have the blue potatoes and two types of fingerling potatoes along with our more winter storage varieties. Tomatoes continue to ripen but not as fast as I would like or would have thought a week ago. This year our heirloom tomatoes are doing well. We are starting to see some blight on them but expect a pretty decent crop. We have been pleasantly surprised with a few ripe heirlooms the past few days. Although sometimes a little ugly looking you can’t beat the flavor of the heirloom tomatoes. We are also beginning to get some ripe egg plant and peppers but not quite enough for our CSA shares and hardly enough to take to market but we know more are coming. We have definitely settled into summer on the farm with all the summer crops and summer weather.

Planted this week: Succession crops of lettuce and greens. We transplanted watermelon plants although late for the year we feel if successful we will have watermelons in September. Also seeded were fall cucumbers, kale, and late zucchini.

In the shares: Tomatoes a mix of heirloom and red slicers, beets some shares will receive red others gold, cucumbers (see this week’s recipe), summer onions, basil and dill, and jalapeno peppers.Enjoy,Jim